Web Use Heating Up

A survey of 15,000 households conducted by the NPD Group shows a
50 percent increase in Web access by home users in May of this year, compared to April.

That increase puts Web access by home users over the 2 million
mark, NPD officials said. In April, the National Survey of Hardware Ownership showed that 5.1 percent of the nation's households, or 5 million home users, were online. That figure equals an 11 percent increase over the previous quarter, when the survey showed 4.5 million users.

Most home users are accessing the Web via commercial online services. During the first quarter of this year, America Online reported, subscriptions were up 19 percent, with Prodigy reporting growth of 5 percent during the same period.